Ordinance Would Make `Bottle Clubs` Allow Inspections

December 22, 1985|By Todd Nelson, Staff Writer

DEERFIELD BEACH — A proposal to regulate ``bottle clubs,`` where patrons can bring alcohol to drink in return for a cover charge, would allow police to inspect the clubs to see whether they were selling alcohol illegally. Police Capt. Frank Landoskey said that such clubs, which don`t hold liquor licenses, have not just been storing the bottles that members bring in themselves.

But without the right to inspect the clubs, he said, police have no way of telling whether such liquor violations occur unless undercover officers get club members to invite them inside.

The ordinance under consideration, which received City Commission approval on first reading last week, would require a bottle club to consent to police inspections in accepting its occupational license. A club must have a license before it can operate.

Landoskey said that one bottle club was operating in the city. Club officials, however, could not be reached for comment on the proposed ordinance.

Under the ordinance, a club would be subject to police inspections during business hours and whenever the licensee or other people are occupying it, the ordinance says.

In approving the ordinance on first reading, commissioners scheduled a public hearing and second reading, for final consideration of the ordinance, on Jan. 7.

City Attorney Andrew Maurodis said bottle clubs, aside from zoning or building code restrictions, now face little city regulation. In addition, the state has left regulation of alcoholic beverage establishments to cities. The ordinance under consideration, however, resembles one that Broward County has adopted.

The ordinance essentially would regulate bottle clubs in the same manner that state and city laws control restaurants and bars that sell liquor, Maurodis said. For example, he said, the ordinance would require bottle clubs to close at the same time as establishments that have liquor licenses.

``It puts them on the same level,`` Maurodis said.

The ordinance defines a bottle club as a premises in which an alcoholic beverage is received or kept for consumption in return for a consideration, which may include the cover charge or fees for ice, non-alcoholic mixes or glassware with which the alcohol is consumed.

Violators would be fined up to $500 under the ordinance, and each day`s violation would be considered a separate offense.

A club violat the ordinance, in addition to being fined, also would be considered a public nuisance, which would allow the city attorney to take action to have the club closed.